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Soundings in the Theology of the Psalms: Perspectives & Methods in Contemporary Scholarship

Reviewed by Philip Joy.

The clue to this publication is in the subtitle. It is a compendium of up-to-date scholarly approaches to the Psalms, charting contemporary understandings of their spiritual depth, purpose and significance for today. Taking its cue from Luther’s premise that Psalter is a sort of Bible in miniature, and noting the continued spiritual potency of the Psalms in the lives of present-day believers from all denominations, this volume presents eight essays from contributors such as McCann Jr, Tanner and Bruggemann.

Walter Bruggeman kicks off the collection with a reprint of his seminal essay The Psalms and the Life of Faith: A Suggested Typology of Function, dealing with the place of the Psalms in the Christian life. Harry P Nasuti discusses God’s purpose in the Psalter in terms of Divine-Human encounter. Jerome F D Creach describes the theology of the Psalms as dealing with the “Destiny of the Righteous.” Nancy L deClaissé-Walford deals with the important place of the Imprecatory Psalms. Joel M LeMon offers the compelling title “Saying Amen to Violent Psalms.” Rolf A Jacobson, the editor, covers the witness of the Psalter to God’s faithfulness, whilst Beth Tanner completes the collection with the considerations pertinent to drawing up a Theology of the Psalter as a whole. Most provocatively, for me, J Clinton McCann Jr. gives us a chapter on Psalm 82 entitled “The Single Most Important Text in the Entire Bible.”

Since this last-mentioned essay caught my particular attention I decided to use it to take a detailed rain-check on this exciting publication. I was not disappointed. McCann takes up Dominic Crossan’s challenge to see this Psalm as the most single important text in the Bible, and although recognizing an element of hyperbole in Crossan’s claim shows how the Psalm answers the ‘what kind of God’ question essential to theology. I was reminded of Karl Barth’s argument that in his eternally primitive act of self-constitution God chose to be a certain kind of God: the One who ‘loves in freedom.’ There can be no more important statement in the Psalter of what kind of God God is: one who is just. The dethroned gods are dethroned not because they are false idols per se, but because they did not bring justice. They do not love the orphan and the oppressed. Connections are then drawn between other texts in the Psalter such as Psalms 1 and 2, the messianic psalms, the ‘God Reigns’ psalms, and the Praise Psalms which finish the Psalter. We find that the just God is to be praised for his justice, followed for his unfailing love; that his justice is to be established by Messiah, and that the content of Messiah’s work and teaching is justice for all the earth, defined as human flourishing. In New Testament terms, this provides content to the statement “In the beginning was the Word,” for it tells us what the Word is like, it tells us in short the character of God.

I believe this is a volume which can help pastors show their people how to profit from the Psalms. It deals with the rhetorical interpretation of the Psalms, the interrelation of God, Israel, the nations and the created order, and sets a pattern for further research into an overall theology of the Psalter, and above all its contemporary significance. Taken together the book does indeed amount to what the blurb advertises as “an ecumenical chorus of voices” on the theology of the Psalter. Ten out of ten.